Hat blocking and brim stretching machine



March 15, 1955 o. MINGARELLI 2,704,175

HAT BLOCKING AND BRIM STRETCHING MACHINE Filed Dec. 29, 1949 INVENTOR ORLANDO MINGARELLI av p I ATTORNEY United States Patent HAT BLOCKING AND BRIM STRETCHING MACHINE Orlando Mingarelli, New York, N. Y.

Application December 29, 1949, Serial No. 135,778

3 Claims. (Cl. 223-15) The present invention relates to a hat blocking and brim stretching machine.

Heretofore, hat blocking and brim stretching machines were arranged to stretch brims of hats, on a production scale, the edges of the brims of which were provided with binding which was sewed along the selvage edge of the rim.

- Machines of this kind were provided with pairs of fingers or jaws between which the brim of the hat was clamped or held for the brim stretching and hat blocking operation. Ofttimes the tips of these fingers or jaws left an impression on the brim of the hat which would disfigure it if it were not concealed from view.

Further, since the upper and lower tips of these fingers or jaws were positioned at the very edge of the hat brim during the brim stretching operation, the stretched brims frequently were not uniform in size, which required the edge of the brim to be cut down after the hat was blocked and the brims stretched.

Again, such cutting of the brim would disfigure the appearance of the hat unless it were concealed from view.

However, because the edges of hat brims had sewed thereon a binding material, hat blocking and brim stretching machines available in the prior art could be used on a production scale since it did not matter whether the brim was uniformly stretched in size or any damaging impression was made by the machine on the hat brim. Whatever deficiency in appearance did result, it was covered up by the binding on the edge.

Thus, hats having bound edges, are in the majority and could be comparatively inexpensively produced since they are adaptable to being blocked and having their brim stretched on automatic machines of the conventional type.

On the other hand, the brims of hats having a tufted edge, sometimes referred to in the trade as a Cavanaugh edge, were stretched by hand and not on automatic hat blocking and brim stretching machines.

The brims of such tufted or Cavanaugh edge hats, since they were not provided with concealing binding were required to be finished at an exact brim size, the edge of which brim could in no way be damaged in appearance. This was impossible with the metal fingers or jaws found in conventional automatic machines, which therefore were never used with hats of this kind and which fingers or jaws engaged the hat brim at its very edge, uahich would thereby be destroyed if it were a tufted e ge.

The present invention therefore contemplates the provision of an automatic hat blocking and brim stretching machine which can be used for work on hats having a tufted or Cavanaugh edge.

The present invention also contemplates the provision of an attachment by means of which a conventional hat blocking and brim stretching machine having fingers or jaws that grasp the brim of the hat, heretofore unavailable in practice, may be converted for use on hats having a tufted or Cavanaugh edge.

These, other and further objects, uses and advantages of the present invention will be clear from the description which follows and the drawing appended thereto, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional hat blocking and brim stretching machine partially broken away to show the hat brim grasping or locking fingers or jaws to which machine my invention may be applied.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the fingers or jaws according to my invention.

Fig. 3 is a partial side view thereof, showing part of the brim of a hat in broken lines.

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of an attachment for one of the fingers or jaws of a hat blocking and brim stretching machine.

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a bottom plan view of an attachment for the other of the fingers or jaws of a hat blocking and brim stretching machine.

Fig. 7 is a cross section on the line 7--7 of Fig. 6.

Referring now to the drawing, a hat blocking and brim stretching machine 10, having sets of fingers or jaws 12 and 14, according to my invention is illustrated in Fig. 1. This machine need not be illustrated in greater detail since its construction is known to those active in this art.

In operation, the hat blank is mounted on a block (not shown, since it is conventional) which is then placed in the interior of the machine 10.

The brim 16 of the hat, partially shown in broken lines in Fig. 3, is grasped between the tip 18 of the inner finger or jaw 12 and the tip 20 of the outer finger or jaw 14. The tip 20 of one finger or jaw is positioned above the tip 18 of the other finger or jaw.

The inner finger or jaw 12 is mounted on the outer finger or jaw 14 by means of the flanges 22 and 24, extending outwardly from the inner finger or jaw, and the pin 26.

The inner finger or jaw 12 is slidable up and down on the outer finger or jaw 14, as viewed in Fig. 3, to grasp and hold the brim 16 of the hat being blocked and stretched, and release it so that it may be withdrawn from the machine.

The number of sets of fingers or jaws provided in any machine will vary with the size and capacity of the machine, for example, usually from thirty-six fingers or jaws to forty fingers or jaws are found in these conventional machines.

The crown of the hat is blocked and stretched to the proper size by means of the handle 28 and the brim of the hat stretched by means of the handle 30.

The fingers or jaws of conventional hat blocking and brim stretching machines are made of metal and the tips of these fingers are fiat and unrelieved. Further, they are positioned at the very edge of the hat brim which they grasp and hold. As a result, not only would they destroy a raised or tufted edge but would leave an impression on the brim of the hat, which since the edge of the hat was usually covered by a binding, was not seen and therefore, in all but hats having a tufted or Cavanaugh edge, was immaterial.

Further, with prior art machines, because the metallic fingers or jaws and their unrelieved surfaces grasped the brims of the hats at their very edges, these brims were not stretched to precise dimensions which as pointed out, did not matter since, after stretching, the brims could be cut to size and then covered with a binding that was sewn along the edge.

In order to convert conventional automatic hat blocking and brim stretching machines for use to block and stretch the brims of hats having a tufted or Cavanaugh edge, I mount on the tip 20 of each outer finger or jaw 14, the attachment, generally indicated by the reference char acter 32 and illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, which constitutes a removable cap for the finger tip. This attachment is made of rubber or other resilient material and is provided with the central opening 34 extending therethrough.

The opening 34 at the front and top thereof is recessed to form the upper shoulder 36 and at the front and bottom thereof is recessed to form the lower shoulder 38. The tip 20 of the finger or jaw 14 is provided with the tongue 40 (see Fig. 3).

The attachment 32 is slipped over the tip 20, which extends through the opening 34 (see Figs. 2 and 3), the tongue 40 fitting in the recess between the shoulders 36 and 38 with the band 42 resiliently holding the attachment on the finger or jaw.

The attachment 32 is undercut to form the toe 44, which extends down from the shoulder 38 and is spaced inwardly from the finger 14. Thus, when the brim 16 of the hat is held between the fingers 12 and 14 (as illustrated in Fig. 3), the edge of the hat brim is cleared by the tip 20.

Thus, a raised, tufted, or Cavanaugh edge cannot be destroyed or harmed by the fingers of a machine equipped with my attachment.

It will of course be understood that the tip 20 of the finger 14 may come equipped with a permanent rubber engaging member that is undercut to provide a similar inwardly spaced engaging toe 44.

The tip 18 of the other finger or jaw 12 is provided with a removable attachment, also formed from rubber or other resilient material and generally indicated by the reference character 46, and which attachment constitutes a slipper or shoe which is illustrated in detail in Figs. 6 and 7 and which may be slipped on the tip 18.

The upper surface 48 of this attachment is preferably knurled to give it better frictional characteristics for looking the brim 16 of the hat in place.

The interior 50 of the attachment 46 is hollow so that it may be slipped over the tip 18 of the finger 12 through the entrance 52 to the interior. The resiliency of the attachment holds it in place on the tip 18.

It will of course be understood that, if desired, the tip 18 of the finger 12 may itself be hollowed out and a rubber tip permanently provided thereon.

In operation, the attachments 32 and 46 having been mounted on all the fingers 12 and 14, a conventional block (not shown) is placed in the interior of the hat crown and the hat set in the center of the machine 10.

The inner fingers 12 are raised on the outer fingers 14 to hold the brim 16 of the hat between the fingers. Since the brim is grasped between rubber or other resilient material, no impression will be made upon it and since the toe 44 is spaced inwardly of the edge of the brim 16, the brim can be uniformly stretched and need not be cut to size thereafter. Nor will a tufted or Cavanaugh edge be destroyed or damaged.

Thus, a binding need not be sewed around the brim of the hat and those hats having a tufted or Cavanaugh edge can now be blocked and their brim stretched on conventional automatic and brim stretching machines on a production scale, hitherto not possible of accomplishment.

It will be understood that changes in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my device will occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and purpose of my invention.

Hence, it is my intention to cover by the claims appended hereto any modified forms of structure or use of equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. In combination with a hat blocking and brim stretching machine having pairs of fingers for clamping the brim of a hat therebetween, a first finger of each pair having a tip positioned above the tip of a second finger of said pair of fingers, first and second attachments for converting said machine for operation on a hat having a brim with a tufted or Cavanaugh edge, said attachments being formed from a resilient material, the first attachment being removably mounted on the tip of the first finger, said first attachment having a hollow interior for insertion thereinto of the tip of the first finger and a toe extending down from the first attachment toward the second attachment, the second attachment being removably mounted on the tip of the second finger, said second attachment having a hollow interior for insertion thereinto of the tip of the second finger, said second attachment having a solid surface and knurling on the solid surface, said second finger being movable toward the first finger to grasp the brim of the hat being operated upon by the machine and the toe being positioned so as to be spaced inwardly from the edge of the brim of said hat toward the crown of said hat.

2. In combination with a hat blocking and brim stretching machine having fingers for clamping the brim of a hat therebetween to be operated upon by the machine, a first attachment for the fingers having upper tips and being removably mounted on said upper tips, a second attachment for the fingers having tips below the first mentioned tips and being-removably mounted on said tips below the first mentioned tips, said attachments formed from a resilient material, and a toe extending down from said first attachment toward said second attachment, one of said fingers movable toward the other of said fingers to grasp the brim of the hat being operated upon by the machine between the toe and the second attachment, said toe being positioned so as to be spaced inwardly from the edge of the brim of said hat toward the crown of said hat.

3. A hat blocking and brim stretching machine for operation on a hat having a brim with a raised, tufted or Cavanaugh edge, said machine having pairs of fingers for clamping the brim of a hat therebetween, a first finger of each pair having a tip above the tip of a second finger of said pair of fingers, said tip of the first finger being undercut, a shoulder and a toe extending down therefrom formed by saidundercutting, said toe being of resilient material and extending down from the shoulder on the tip of the first finger toward the tip of the second finger and a resilient surface on the tip of the second finger, said second finger being movable on the first finger to bring the resilient surface on the tip of the second finger toward the toe extending down from the tip of the first finger for grasping between the toe and said surface the brim of a hat in the machine and clear the said tufted, raised or Cavanaugh edge.

Muller Apr. 8, 1902 Muller May 9, 1933 

